gave Greek cities on coast of Asia Minor the right to follow their own laws

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soon the ever quarreling gave the Persians reasons to reassert their influence there

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431-404 BC Peloponnesian War

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400-350 BC Sparta, Thebes and Athens struggled against each other to assert dominance over the Greek world

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Spartans squandered the initiative that they had gained through their victory in the Peloponnesian War

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Thebans got the upper hand

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because of military innovations

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infantry men usually wore helmets, breastplates, and carried a spear and a shield made of wood with a metal rim

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shield is called a hoplon which is where we get the word hoplites

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hoplites were arranged in lines

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city-states would send their armies out into an open field, e.g. the land in dispute

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line of the hoplite armies would close into each other and clash

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the goal was to have mass

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the object was to break open a hole in the other line

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the goal usually was not to annihilate your enemy but to push them off the land itself

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of course it was an extremely bloody kind of warfare, characterized by thrashing and thrusting

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took a great deal of courage

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hoplites needed to train and be prepared to fight together and protect each other

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important to stay in their places in the lines to prevent breakthroughs

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each hoplite was responsible not only for protecting himself but the person next to him

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their shield they held in their left hand could only protect the left side of their body

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the man on your right had to protect you as well

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coordination and cohesion was absolutely essential and critical

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you all fought together, or you all died together

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because most city-states had populations of male citizens that were more or less consistent

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most city-states could only put into the field hundreds or a few thousand hoplite warriors

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only 1,2,3,4,5 or at most 8 lines of these warriors

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most of these battles resulting in these kinds of scrums, both sides pushing together to make a breakthrough

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this is where the Theban military innovations become important

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had a much larger population

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got the idea of extending the lines, the sum total which was called a phalanx not just to 8 ranks but to an unbelievable 50 ranks

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made it easier to bash through the lines of their opponents

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Thebans also trained up a kind fo special forces unit called a Sacred Band

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150 pairs of elite soldiers who trained together from the time their were very young, camped together, and, there is evidence, were actually lovers as well

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fought side by side in battle

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put into battle at crucial moments and at important places

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using these military innovations, the Thebans were able to defeat the Spartans in two important battles

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371 BC

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400 Spartans of the officer class were killed

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Thebes gained the upper hand in Greater Greece

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362 BC

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unfortunately, their great tactical and innovative genius, Epaminondas, was killed in battle

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the Athenians in the fourth century

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won naval alliances

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pursued the Persians

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dominated the Aegean

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ran out of money

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became exhausted as well

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the middle of the fourth century

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the three powers in Greece

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Sparta

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Thebes

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Athens

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had worn themselves out, fighting amongst each other

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the result was that after more than a century of struggle Persia was yet again in the position to be the dominant influence up to and including the coast of Asia minor

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paying back Persia for its acts of ancient sacrilege, was a rhetorical pipe dream

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there was only one potential threat to Persia from the West

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the Kingdom of Macedon and a boy growing up there named Alexander

Vocabulary:

aspis, n. a type of round shield worn by ancient Greek soldiers, usually made of wood with a metal rim⇒ "For centuries, to settle interstate disputes largely over land, Greek city states had armed and equipped themselves with helmets, breast plates, greaves, and carried a spear as their offensive weapon, and also a shield, usually made of wood but with a metal rim called an aspis or hoplon."

People:

Epaminondas (418-362 BC)

[Ἐπαμεινώνδας]

Theban general and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a preeminent position in Greek politics

broke Spartan military power with his victory at Leuctra and liberated the Messenian helots, a group of Peloponnesian Greeks who had been enslaved under Spartan rule for some 230 years

reshaped the political map of Greece, fragmented old alliances, created new ones, and supervised the construction of entire cities

also militarily influential, inventing and implementing several major battlefield tactics

had been praised in his time as an idealist and liberator, but now largely remembered for a decade of campaigning that sapped the strength of the great land powers of Greece and paved the way for the Macedonian conquest

has fallen into relative obscurity in modern times, as a mere twenty-seven years after his death, a recalcitrant Thebes was obliterated by Alexander the Great

Spelling Corrections:

Peloponesian ⇒ Peloponnesian

Ideas and Concepts:

From the turning-points-in-history department, via this morning's Alexander the Great class: "By the middle of the fourth century BC, the three main powers on the Greece homeland, Sparta, Thebes, and Athens, had worn themselves out fighting amongst each other. The result was that after more than a century of struggle, Persia was yet again in the position to be the dominant influence up to and including the coast of Asia minor. For the Greeks, paying back Persia for its acts of ancient sacrilege was a rhetorical pipe dream, and now there was only one potential threat to Persia from the West:the Kingdom of Macedonia and a little boy growing up there named Alexander."